I am awoken by the sound of ocean waves, crashing against the shore. A soothing melody can be heard, slowly getting louder, and louder and -- BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. I slap my alarm clock into quietness. 5:30 am, the numbers hurt my eyes. Every muscle in body tells me to stay in bed but my brain is whispering, ‘you need this’.

“Last day of summer Ian. We gotta go.” His only response is an exhausted groan. “We are doing this wake up!” We drag our way out of bed and grab our backpacks and longboards. Closing the door silently as to not wake the others. We set on our way, longboards at our sides, Arnold Palmer in hand. The darkness is suffocating but you can see the beginning of a sunrise towards the East. “We can’t waste any time”.

Leaving the gravel path, we are able to put our longboards down on a freshly paved road. I begin to pick up a fair amount of speed. All I can hear is my board, the wind, and the bugs. I look up and see the stars, brighter than they’ve ever been. Though every minute that passes leads to a lighter shade of black, and the stars begin to fade. My eyes go forward, fixated on my destination. The East is getting brighter, though the sun hasn’t revealed itself yet. I crouch down, attempting to pick up more speed, I can’t miss this sunrise.
I whip around the curves of the winding, up-north road. “Lets go Ian we need to go!” My eyes are locked on to the horizon, praying for time to slow down. I picture sitting on the beach, watching the first bit of sun climb over the lake. I am now pushing as fast as I can. It’s a straight-shot to the beach. No more turns. No more winding roads. But as the beach comes into sight, it seems to get farther away. I push harder. My legs can't keep up with my speed and I go into a full tuck. I need to see this. I need it.
Then I see it. Peeking its head up over the horizon. The sun. It has started its final journey. The top part of the sun casts a shadow on the road. Looking back, I can see a shadow of myself now standing straight up on my board. Arms at its side. That’s when I smell beach. The smell of summer. The scent of stress-free afternoons and wild nights resonates through my body and reality finally hits me. This is the last sunrise. This is end. No more wild nights no more carefree days basking in the sun. This is it.
Its Ian’s voice that snaps me out of my trance. “Josh c’mon, we’re almost there keep going.” I look down and realized that I had been so focused on savoring the sunrise that I forgot to keep pumping, leaving me stopped in the middle of the road. The beach was right in front of me. I make my final pushes and ride the sidewalk all the way down to the shore. I jump off my board, submerging my feet in the sand. Running out of my shoes, I find myself sprinting into the water. I am knee-deep staring at the sun. The full sun. It has completed its journey and is reflecting off of the lake. The sunrise had come and gone in what seemed like an instant. The entire way there I had been longing for time to slow, for the sun not to rise; so much so that I missed the sunrise itself.
I stand there in the water; arms at my side, chin down. Summer, like the sunrise, had escaped me. I spent the whole time dwelling on the idea that I can’t waste time; and by doing so I forgot to experience the event itself.